


Bullet The Blue Sky

by bbluejoseph



Series: The Joshua Tree [6]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Like very minor, M/M, Minor Injuries, Physical hurt/comfort, but its like two sentences long, humor?, i just want to be sure yall know, impromptu midnight head shaving, in a slightly graphic way, mentions of past panic, trench, tyler describes a desire to be free of past events, you know what im talking about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21515590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbluejoseph/pseuds/bbluejoseph
Summary: A hand was shaking his shoulder, dragging him from the pit of his slumber, and he sat up groggily.
Relationships: Josh Dun/Tyler Joseph
Series: The Joshua Tree [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1487714
Kudos: 21





	Bullet The Blue Sky

**Author's Note:**

> requested by anon, here we have some fluff with sickness/physical injury, hurt/comfort, and the “promise not to laugh?” prompt. this takes place a few months after the end of bio. title from the u2 song of the same name.

Josh’s sleep was empty.

Lots of people from the city had nightmares, haunting them while they slept. Josh didn’t. He didn’t have dreams, either. His sleep was like Dema itself, dark and cold and eerily silent. At least, when he was sleeping. It was easier with Tyler there.

He was roused from this sleep late in the night. A hand was shaking his shoulder, dragging him from the pit of his slumber, and he sat up groggily. 

Clancy was in front of him, eyes sharp in the dark, and this woke Josh up further. He fumbled around in the blankets, but it was clear that Tyler was absent from the tent. Panic clutched at him, and Josh quickly looked to the flap of the tent.

One night, maybe a few weeks after Nico’s death, Josh had woken to find Tyler absent. He’d burst out of the tent in his pajamas, breathing already rapid and laboured; in his haze, he thought Tyler might have been taken again, lost to him for a sixth time.

In truth, Tyler had been unable to sleep, so had gone to sit by the fire with Clancy. Josh had rushed to him, clung to him, and they had gone back to the tent. It took over an hour of Tyler soothing Josh for him to calm down again.

Since then, they had agreed that if one of them needed to leave the tent at night--insomnia was rampant in Trench--then they would leave a strip of yellow tape on the inside of the tent flap, to let the other know they hadn’t been stolen. 

There was a strip of tape there now. Josh breathed in slowly a few times, then looked to Clancy, who was waiting patiently at his side. “Why did you wake me? What’s going on?”

‘It’s Tyler,’ Clancy signed steadily. ‘He’s still here,’ he added quickly, so as not to urge on Josh’s nerves.

Josh was already climbing out of bed, throwing on his sweatshirt. “What happened?”

‘He got up about twenty minutes ago and went straight into one of the supply tents. He said he was fine, but he wouldn’t come out, and he wouldn’t let me in. I left him be, but now he’s asking for you.’

Josh laced his boots slowly, trying to steady his heartbeat. Tyler was fine. He was in camp. Everything was fine. “Show me.”

Clancy waited until he was ready, then led the way out and into the rest of the camp. The tent Tyler was in was on the very edge of the camp, away from most of the tents used for sleeping. 

‘I’ll be by the fire if you need anything,’ Clancy told him, stepping away to give them some privacy. Josh nodded gratefully and stepped closer to the tent.

He could hear a faint buzzing sound from inside; familiar, but he couldn’t identify it. He touched the flap of the tent. “Tyler?”

The buzzing stopped. “Josh?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Can I come in?”

There was a pause, and Josh was beginning to seriously grow worried when he heard Tyler’s voice again. “Promise not to laugh?”

Now he was a bit puzzled, but still determined to help. “Promise.”

“Come in.”

Josh pushed the tent flap aside and stepped in. The area was faintly lit by a small lamp on the floor. The tent was full of supplies, stacked away for later use, but Josh’s eyes settled quickly on Tyler. The bandito was sitting in the corner, a ring of what looked like dust surrounding him, and he was holding something in his hand.

As Josh got closer, he realized that the dust was hair, and the object in Tyler’s hand was the razor Jenna used to shave people’s heads. 

Tyler’s head was poorly shaved, with some patches of hair shorter than the others. His cheeks were red; he scowled at Josh. “Don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing.” Josh took a careful seat next to him. 

“You’re smiling.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” He reached out a hand, resting it on Tyler’s knee. “Clancy woke me up. He said you wanted to see me.”

Tyler looked at the mess of hair around him. His curls had just been starting to grow back, but now they were scattered haphazardly on the burlap. 

“I woke up and I...wasn’t feeling well.” There was no need to elaborate further. Their hands both moved towards one another, meeting in the middle. Josh linked their fingers together and nodded for Tyler to go on. 

“I’m not the things that have happened to me. It feels like a growth sometimes, like I need to cut it out.” He mimicked twisting a knife with his free hand. Josh swallowed, squeezing his hand, and Tyler went on. “I remembered Jenna shaving my head, and I thought maybe that could do it. I just didn’t want to wake her.”

“Did it help?” Josh asked. “Do you feel better?”

“Sort of. I didn’t do a good job,” Tyler admitted. “Never cut my hair before. I thought maybe you could…” He gestured with a hand. “If you want to.”

Josh quickly got to his feet. “Yeah, of course.” Tyler put the razor in Josh’s hands, and he inspected the damage. 

He quickly got to work shaving the patches of hair that Tyler had missed. Josh noticed that there were little cuts on his head, tiny nicks from shaky hands unused to shaving, and he frowned. They were tiny, but they must have hurt. He carefully worked around them.

By the time he was done, Tyler’s hair looked much better. Josh turned the battery-powered razor off. “I think you need some salve on those cuts.”

“They’re fine,” Tyler dismissed, but Josh wasn’t having it. He rummaged through one of the boxes in the tent until he found some medical supplies. Instructing Tyler to stay still, he dabbed little bits of the salve on the cuts until he was satisfied. 

“Thank you.”

Josh put the rest of the salve away. “What for?”

“For taking care of me. And shaving my head. And not laughing at me for doing such a crappy job.”

He smiled. “It was kind of crappy, wasn’t it?” 

Tyler snorted. “Don’t push it.”


End file.
